The Girl Who Fell company at my post-show Q&A at Trafalgar Studios on 16 October 2019. © Peter Jones

My post-show talk at The Girl Who Fell at Trafalgar Studios. © Peter Jones

I feel like I’ve known writer Sarah Rutherford for years… that’s one of the positives of social media. (We follow each other on Twitter.) The irony is it’s her new play, The Girl Who Fell, about some of the negatives of social media that finally precipitated my meeting her in person.

And what a great discussion we had last night at Trafalgar Studios after what was only the second-ever performance of this brand-new play, produced by Stage Traffic (a connection that Sarah Rutherford also has social media to thank for).

“It’s meaningless. It’s a distraction. It’s like God and Snapchat — anything to stop people thinking and questioning things.”

In The Girl Who Fell, single mother Thea (Claire Goose) tries to understand what happened with her 15-year-old daughter, who has recently died after some ‘social media foolishness’. Can Sam’s schoolfriends, offbeat twins Lenny (Will Fletcher) and Billie (Rosie Day), or lost soul Gil (Navin Chowdry) help Thea make sense of loss, guilt and Snapchat?

And how about the audience?

  • What impact does social media have on our mental health?
  • How concerned should we be about social media addiction?
  • What exactly is ‘sharenting’?
  • How does charity stem4, for which Rosie Day is an ambassador, support teenagers?
  • What’s happening behind the scenes at a second preview?!

For the discussion, I was joined on the panel by writer Sarah Rutherford, director Hannah Price and the cast to discuss this and more with the audience. With shoutouts to producer Eilene Davidson and the hard-working creatives Georgia de Grey (set), Robbie Butler (lighting), Adrienne Quartley (sound) and others.

The Girl Who Fell runs until 23 November 2019 at Trafalgar Studios.

Q&A video

Q&A photos

Event photography by Peter Jones.

Show trailer

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